Fears Grow of Terror in U.S. With Weaponized Civilian Drones

The successful use of small drones as weapons by terrorists in Middle Eastern war zones is raising concerns among U.S. security agencies that homegrown extremists will utilize them for domestic attacks.

As millions of light-weight drones flood the consumer market and the federal government struggles with monitoring the devices, counter-terror agencies now see a possibility that they could be used in the U.S. to carry explosives or as surveillance platforms, according to officials at a security conference in Washington on Wednesday.

“They are doing all sorts of innovative and experimental things,” John Mulligan, deputy director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, said. “We’ve seen them using them in surveillance. We’ve seen them using them in weapons delivery. We can rest assured that they will continue to fine tune their capabilities in this regard.”